Reversing drive mechanism for textile-pattern chains



May 14, 1929. FR|EDMANN 1,712,660

REVERSING DRIVE MECHANISM FOR TEXTILE PATTERN CHAINS Filed Jan. 19, 19252 Sheets-Sheet INVENTOR.

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A TTORNEYS.

y 1929- A. FRIEDMANN ,660

REVERSING DRIVE MECHANISM FOR TEXTILE PATTERN CHAINS Filed Jan. 19, 19252 Sheets-Sheet 2 I Q B o 0 0000000009 A/rz rn'edma INVENTORF ATTORNEYS.

names ill/lay it, terauNi Eo STATES with PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT FRIEDMANN, 0F WYOMISSING, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOB TO TEXTILE MA-CHINE WORKS, 0F WYOMISSING, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORYORATION OF PENNSYL- vamaREVERSING D RIVE MECEIAITISJIII FOR TEXTILEPATTERN CHAINS.

Application filed January My invention relates to pattern chainmechanism employed particularly in connection with textile'machines fordeterminedly controlling the operative movements thereof; and moreparticularly it relates toan 1mproved chain drive mechanism provid ngfor chain-determined reversing movements of the direction of the driveto permit desired repeat action of a portion or portions of the chainlength. The invention is more fully 'set forth and described inconnection with v ing, is driven by said drum 3 around which it v theaccompanying drawings and the novel features particularly pointed out inthe subjoined claims.

Fig. 1 shows in side elevation a prefererd embodiment of my invention,the chain being shown only in dotted outline.

' 1F ig. 2 is a corresponding plan view, partly in section on the line2'2 of Fig. 1.

.l ig. 3 is a partial end View, looking n the direction of arrow 3 ofFig. 1, show ng a part of the pattern chain and its driving drum. I

Fig. i indicates a portion of a stocking fabric having lace clockdesigns automatically produced on a full fashioned knltting ma chine,the operative control of the machine by a pattern chain having myimproved drive, producing the same in a simplified manner and at a greatsaving in. the length of such chain heretofore required. v 7

ln the drawings 1 have indicated only my improved reversible chaindriving mechanism, its application to and cooperation with an automaticmachine being well understood and requirin no further explanation; thepreferred em odiment shown being particu larly adapted for'use with afull fashioned knitting machine to control the movements of the lacepoints-in the production of open work or lace'stockings suc as indicatedin Fig. 4. Referring more particularly to the drawings, 1 represents thebase, and 2, 2 spaced vertical side members of a frame adapted for myimproved'mechanism; said frame being suitably secured in cooperativerelation with the machine and carrying a drive drum 3 freely rotatableon'shaft 4 supported in side members 2, 2. The chain 5, which may be ofany usual type, and, commonly comprises a series of connectedlinkbarsprovided with studs or buttons of suitable height and spacis carriedwith its extended length supported 19,, 1925. Seriallh. 3,340.

to move the chain back and forth over a given I len th thereof, asdetermined by the chain itse f, so that such chain portion may reeatedly act; and such repeat action of a c ain portion, as readilyunderstood, permits cutting out long chain sections heretofore requiredto perform thesame operations.

To provide for such reversing movements of. the driving drum 3, in theconstruction illustrated, I orm the latter with two fixed ratchet-wheels6 and 7 the teeth of which are set in opposite directions, as shown, andracked by their respective pawls 8 and 9, carried on end studs 10 and11- of their respective carrying levers 12 and13. Said levers 12 and 13extend in opposite directions from a common pivot support on theprojected end of drum shaft 4 and have regular periodic oscillatingmovements imparted to them through the medium of push rodslt and 15,preferably acting in unison and operated from the machine drivemechanism,-in the present case'by a cam or cams on the main cam shaft.Pawl 8, as shown, has an extension 8?, and is held in racking ornon-racking position on its stud l0by a spring detent 16 engaging ;inone or other of the notches of an. arm 17 fixed to said stud 10; andpawl 9 is similarly held through its extension 9* and its spring detent18 engaging in one of th notches of arm 19 fixed to its stud 11.

It is obvious that only one pawl at a time may be in racking engagementwith its of such length that it will be shifted by contact of a pawlmovingitooperative or racking position so as to lift t e other pawl toinoperative or non-racking position in advance ofany racking action ofthe engagingly moving pawl.

Pawls 8 and 9, in the constructionshown, are selectively moved toracking position thro h the medium of chain studs or buttons engagingand holding in pawl setting position one or other of two pawl settinglevers or 26 which have a common pivot support on shaft 27 and to whichperiodic oscillating swings are imparted by a plunger bar 28; the latterbeing periodically operated by the ma chine drive mechanism in a mannersimilar to the operation of the push rods 14 and 15, but acting somewhatin advance of the latter. Levers 25 and 26, as shown, are jointly liftedwith each rising movement of said plunger bar 28 and fall with thelatter, except when one of them is held in lifted pawl setting positionby engagement of its opposite end 30 with a stud or button on thepattern chain.

When lever 25 is thus temporarily held in raised pawl setting positionby a link stud, as

indicated by. dotted lines in Fig. 1, the succeeding downward action ofpush rod 14 lowers pawl carrying lever 12 which causes pawl end 8 tocontact with said stud set lever 25 and turn its pawl 8 on its stud 10into racking position for action on its ratchet wheel 6; and

' spring detent 16-shifted a notch by such pawl 'ries ind'epen entlypivoted thereon a bell crank 31, one arm of which lies in the plane ofpawl setting lever 26 and its other arm connected by a link 32 to aswinging lever 33 freely carried by pivot pin 34, with its free endhaving a limited movement between adjustable stops as shown, andnormally held in retracted position against one of said stops 38 by aspring 37 Swinging lever 33 also carries a counting device, in the formof a disc 35 as shown and later herein more fully described, and aswinging stop 40 which rides on the peripher of said discand directlycontacts with paw end 9 of pawl 9, when said lever 33 is swung away fromits stop 38.

chain stud, the succeeding downward swingarm of bell crank 31 tocontactwith said chain I When pawl setting'lever 26 is held in raised pawlsetting position by a properly positioned of pawl carrying lever 12 willcause the one set lever to swing said bell crank on its pivot stud 10,and suchswinging bell crank, through the medium of link 32, swinginglever 33, counting disc 35, and swinging stop 40, will move pawl 9 toracking position on its stud 11 through its pawl extension 9. .-"Suchensagi awl 8 rough actidn of pawl shifted ar '20, and W111 also shiftpawl detent 18 to another notch to hold said awl in such rack- 'tion foraction on 1ts ratchet wheel 7 solt atsucceeding swinging movements ofnglmovement of pawl '9 will disengage, t sli e pawl carrying lever 13 asactuated push rod 15 will reversely drive drum 3.

. The counting disc 35 above referred to as carried by swinging lever33, has a concentric ratchet toothed drive gear, and is periodicallyracked, as by a pawl 39 fixedly ivoted to said frame member 2, each timeSaid SWingin lever 33 is oscillated by bell crank 31 and retractivespring 37 And the periphery of said disc 35 is provided with one or morenotches 41, as required by the pattern, into which notch the toothed endof swinging stop 40 will fall as said disc turns, and when in thisposition it is out of contact with pawl end 9 and the succeedingswinging movement of lever 33 will fail to shift pawl 9, leaving thechain drum under the continued action of pawl 8, thus providing at timesfor rendering ineffective the action of one chain stud so as to pass the"same and continue with other chain portions.

As before stated, the upward stroke of plunger 28 is somewhat in advanceof the upward strokes of push rods 14 and 15, which action swings theends 30 of levers 25 and 26 away from the chain during racking movementof the latter; and clearance is also provided between the raised pawlsetting levers 25 and 26, and pawl end 8 and contact arm of hell crank31, so that no shifting movement of the latter is effected by the upwardstroke of plunger 28 lifting said levers 25 and 26, but only during thedelayed downward stroke of push rods 14 and 15 carrying lever carriedpawl end 8 and bell crank arm 31 into contact with one or other of saidpawl setting levers 25 or 26 as selectively heldin set raised positionby a chain stud.

In the particular showing of the drawings, other levers, 50, 51, 52 and53 are shown as pivotally carried on pivot shaft 27 and lifted andlowered by plunger bar 28, except as their rearwardly exten ing ends areengaged by chain studs, indicated at 55, 56, 57 58 and 59, to hold themin adjusted raised position to control the movement of lace pointshifting rod 71. Other studs 60 and 61 indicated effect only levers 25and 26 to control the drive motions of the chain in the manner abovefully set forth.

The action of my improved chain drive mechanism above fully set forth,will be described in connection with the lace clock pattern shown inFig, 4, as-the preferred embodiment illustrated is particularlyapplicable for this urpose.

' en the knittin machine reaches the course indicated by the line VV,the pattern chain is set in motion, as by automatic shiftingof the maincam shaft to bring cams thereon into operation to actuate push rods 14and 15 and plunger bar 28. The direction of movement of said chain,which preferably will'be in a forward direction and may be controlled asby a forward chain stud con- I studs 55 to 59 on the five chain links 65ill shown in Fig. 3. As the racked drum brings into action thefirst ofthese five links, a forward stud 60 on the latter attempts to influencethe direction of the chain movement by engaging and holding in setposition pawl setting lever 25, but as this pawl is then in rackingposition, no change in the till till

chain motion is eilected .until stud 61 on the fifth link is broughtinto action to hold pawl setting lever 26 in raised set position, whenpawl 9 is moved to racking position and previously acting pawl 8 movedto nonracking position in the manner hereinbefore fully set forth. Pawl9 will now reverse the motion of. the chain for five links until forwardstud again changes it by raising pawl setting lever 25 to shift pawl 8into racking position and pawl 9 to nonracking position. Such forwardand backward movement of these five links will continue throughout theproductions of the design between the lines X-X and XX, taking the placeof the number of links heretofore required,equal to the number of timeseach of these five linksis in action. When "the line X"-X is reached,counting disc 35, which has been racked at each reversing action of pawlsetting lever 26, presents a notch 41 to swinging stop 40, so as torender ineifective the next reversin action of stud ii]. in the mannerclearlyset forth heretofore, so that pawl 8 which continues to act willmove the chain past the fifth link and bring into play thesucceedinglink or links controlling the pattern beyond said line X -XSuch succeeding pattern may require individual links or may again beproducable by a series of links moved back and forth as above and asdetermined by other chain studs (not shown) in line with 60 and 61.

The saving of chain length, in the particular employment above set-,forth, may be as high as eighty per. centum, ";greatly reducing thecost and time of setting up, and radically simplifying the handlingthereof, the unwieldly lengths heretofore required necessitating specialsupporting means to carry the same in freely running untangled position.

While the particular embodiment above set forth and shown is peculiarlyapplicable to controlling the lace points of full fashioned knittingmachine, it will be readily seen, that its simple, compact and readilyapplied construction, will make it equally applicable to other controlsof the same machine or radically difierent machines. And the particularembodiment specifically set forth may of course be modified within thescope of the invention as defined in the claims.

What I claim is g 1. A pattern chain reversing drive mechanismcomprising a pattern chain, a driving drum therefor, reversely actingdriving mechanisms for the latter, a member on said chain adapted toeffect drivingmovement in one direction, a second member on said chainadapted to efiect driving movement in a reverse direction, and acounting device controlled by one of said members and adapted toperiodically prevent a change in the direction of movement of said drum.

2. A pattern chain reversing drive'mechanism comprising a pattern chain,a driving drum therefor, reversely acting driving mechanisms for thelatter, a member on one link of said chain adapted to operate onedriving mechanism, a second memberon another link of said chain adaptedto operate the reverse driving mechanism, and a counting devicecontrolled by one of said mechanisms and adapted to periodically renderineffective the action of one of said'members.

3. A pattern chain reversing drive mechanism comprising a pattern chain,a driving drum therefor, reversely racking pawl mechanisms for thelatter, amember on said chain adapted to operatively position one pawl,a

second member on said chain adapted to ope chain adapted to operativ'elyposition theother pawl,a;nd a counting device, controlled by one of saidmembers, associated with one of said pawl mechanisms and operated ateach operation of the latter, and means controlled by said countingmechanism to periodically avoid the operative positioning of a pawl.

5. ,A pattern chain reversing drive mechanism comprising a patern chain,a driving drum therefor, reversely racking pawlmechanisms for thelatter, a chain link adapted to operatively position one pawl, a secondchain link adapted to operatively position the other pawl, meansoperated by an engaging pawl to disengage the opposed pawl, a countingdevice associated with one pawl mechanism and operated at each pawlpositioning of the latter, and means controlled by said counting deviceto periodically prevent such pawl positioning. 7

6. A pattern chain reversing drive mechaoperatively position one awl, asecond chain link adapted to operative y position the other pawl, meansoperated by an engaging pawl to v the opposed pawl, a counting disc V I'tion of the latter.

v of said lever.

having a driving ratchet associated with one pawl mechanism, meansoperative at each pawl positioning movement of the latter to rack saiddisc, and disc controlled means adapted to periodically avoid such pawlpositioning.

7. A pattern chain reversing drive mechanism comprising a pattern chain,a driving drum therefor, reversely racking pawl mechanisms for thelatter, a chain link adapted to operatively position one pawl, a secondchain link adapted to operatively position the other pawl, meansoperated by an engaging pawl to disengage the opposed pawl, a pivotedlever carrying a ratchet driven counting disc having a notchedperiphery, racking means for said disc operative by the pawl positioningmovement of one pawl mechanism, a pawl engaged stop riding on said discperiphery and periodically engaging in said notch to periodicallyprevent movement of its pawl to engaging position.

8. A pattern chain reversing drive .meehanism comprising a pattern drum,reversely racking pawls therefor, periodically swung pawl carryinglevers, chain set periodically swung pawl positioning levers and acounting device actuated by one of said pawl-positioning levers andadapted to periodically render ineffective the pawl positioning ac- 9. Apattern chain reversing drive mechanism comprising a pattern drum,reversely racking pawls therefor, periodically swung pawl carryinglevers, chain set periodically swung pawl positioning levers and apivotally swung counting device operated by one of said pawl positioninglevers and adapted to periodically render ineffective the pawlpositioning action of the latter. I 10. A pattern'chain reversing drivemechanism comprising a pattern drum, reversely racking pawls therefor,periodically swung pawl carrying levers, chain set periodically swungpawl positioning levers and a pivotally swung lever oscillated by one ofsaid pawl positioning levers and a counting disc on said lever rotatedstep-by-step at each lever oscillation, and adapted to periodicallyrender inefiective a pawl positioning movement 11. A pattern chainreversing drive mechanism' comprisin a pattern drum, reversely rackingpawls erefor, periodically'swung pawl carrying levers, chain setperiodically ing levers extending in op swung pawl positioning leversand a ivotally swung lever oscillated by one of said pawl positioninglevers, a counting disc on said lever having a notched periphery and aratchet drive gear racked at each oscillation of said lever, andaswinging stop on the latter periodically engageable in said notchedperiphery to render ineffective the pawl p0sitioning movement of saidlever.

12. In a pattern chain reversing drive mechanism comprising a chain drumand reversely racking pawls therefor, periodically swung pawl-carryinglevers pivoted coaxially with said drum, periodicallv swungpawlactuating levers, chain carried means efl'ecting the activepositions of said pawl actuating levers, and means actuated by anengaging pawl to disengage the opposed pawl.

13. In a pattern chain reversing drive mechanism comprising a chain drumand reversely racking pawls therefor, swinging pawl-carrying leverspivoted coaxiall with said drum and having means to be] their respectivepawls in engaged or disengaged positions, chain carried means effectingthe movements of either pawl to engaged position, and means actuated bythe engaging pawl to disengage the opposed pawl.

M. In a pattern chain reversing drive mechanism a pattern chain, adriving drum therefor having rcversely toothed driving ratchet wheels,coaxially pivoted pawl carrying levers extending in opposite directions,

pawls carried by the latter and movable thereon to racking andnon-racking position, pawl setting levers, means to periodically swingsaid pawl carrying levers and said pawl setting levers, chain carriedmeans to selectively position either of said pawl setting levers and aslide bar operated by an engaging pawl to disengage the opposed pawl.

15. In I a pattern chain reversing drive mechanism a pattern chain, adriving drum therefor having reversely toothed driving ratchet wheels,coaxially pivoted pawl carry- 'te directions, pawls carried by thelatter and movable thereon to racking and non-racking position, pawlsetting levers, means to periodically swing said pawl carrying leversand said pawl setting levers, chain carried means to selectively 'tioneither of said pawl setting levers, a bar operated by an engaging pawlto disengage the opposed pawl, a counting disc operated by one of saidpawl setting levers, and means actuated by said counting disc toperiodically render inefiective the pawl positioning action of one ofsaid pawl setting levers.

In testimony whereof I afix my signature.

ALBERT FRIEDMANN.

